Amazon announces GameCircle for the Kindle Fire

Amazon has been in the news a lot as of late, especially since the release of Google’s Nexus 7 tablet (take a look at our review here). The company has been rumored to be launching the new Kindle Fire this month, while those rumors were shot down with added information that the Fire would rock similar specs as the Nexus 7.

Well, we can’t confirm any of those rumors, but we can tell you that the e-commerce heavyweight has announced its plans to release a feature called GameCircle — a new gaming experience for the Kindle Fire. This feature basically offers the same kind of functionality you’d see in Apple’s Game Center.

Sparingly, this is Amazon’s attempt to get developers on board with its gaming integration idea, releasing API’s allows devs to do some tinkering magic, which is a clear focus of the Kindle Fire maker.

“GameCircle gives developers the right tools to build an immersive, more entertaining experience on Kindle Fire, which will ultimately help developers grow their business,” said Paul Ryder, Vice President of Apps, Games, and Services at Amazon.

All in all, this is a good move by Amazon as it tries new things to separate itself from Google. Gaming with folks on a mobile platform so far has been a struggle for everyone (including Apple), but if Amazon can pull it off with its Kindle clientele — hats off to them. That said, you have to think GameCircle will be the perfect thing for Apple to get its patent troll-on.